Budget trouble in Connecticut

The budget recently passed by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut and signed by Governor Dan Malloy includes $1.4 billion in new taxes for the fiscal year starting this July and another $1.2 billion in new taxes for the following year. It also reduces spending by $3 billion over the next two years, but included in those savings are $2 billion in savings from state employees1 that have not been achieved.

Folks from Governor Malloy's office and from unions representing state employees have been meeting almost since the Governor announced his budget in February to find the savings on which the Governor's budget, now approved, depends. In the event that an agreement isn't reached, layoffs of state employees and further cuts to budgets will follow.

Today, Governor Malloy announced that he has "directed OPM to begin issuing layoff notices in an orderly fashion to the first 4,742 state employees." Included in that total are 285 employees of the University of Connecticut. I am very hopeful that Governor Malloy and union representatives will find a solution that does not involve layoffs. The University has already had to deal reduce expenditures by $45 million in each of the next two years to avoid a deficit. Losing 285 colleagues in addition will lower the quality of service we are able to offer our students.

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Earlier this week, Governor Daniel Malloy started issuing pink slips to state employees (including 285 at the University of Connecticut). The layoffs were part of his plan to close a gap left in the budget approved earlier this month. Fortunately,...